Following a meeting with his provincial and territorial counterparts in Saskatoon on December 17, 2008, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters there would be a deficit of at least $5 billion in 2009. In fact, the finance ministry was projecting deficits for the next three years. [Flaherty admits economy looks bleak (Toronto Star, December 18, 2008)]

On September 10, 2009, Flaherty was the guest speaker at a lunch hosted by the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. He delivered a fiscal update showing a record $55.9 billion deficit in 2009, a massive increase from a projected $33.7 billion in the January budget.

The cumulative deficit is expected to be $164 billion over a six year period, ending in 2014-15.

According to the Times-Colonist, in earlier projections, the government said the deficit would be eliminated by 2013-14. Now Flaherty was telling the folks in Victoria that the government’s plan was to reduce the deficit to “a manageable” $5.2 billion by 2014-15. He told reporters the deficit could be eliminated with restraint measures, without spending cuts, and reiterated Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s pledge not to raise taxes. [Flaherty: Deficit will hit $56 billion, no tax hikes (Times-Colonist, September 11, 2009)]

Then along came Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) Kevin Page, who blew the Harper government’s shell game apart with reports on January 13 and February 18, 2010, exposing the Tories damaging tax policies and contradicting Flaherty’s strategy for eliminating the deficit.

Page said due to tax cuts – primarily the cut to the GST and corporate taxes – and an aging population, the federal government’s structural balance is projected to deteriorate from essentially a balanced position in 2007-08 to a structural deficit of $18.9 billion in 2013-14.

A “structural deficit” means that government revenues continually fall short of expenditures, even when the economy is running smooth.

“The Government’s current fiscal structure is not sustainable over the long term. That is, under the current fiscal structure, the Government’s debt relative to GDP is projected to increase on a substantial and sustained basis over the long term,” the PBO’s Feb. 18 report states.

“To close the fiscal gap, permanent fiscal actions – either through increased taxes or reduced program spending, or some combination of both – amounting to 1.0 and 1.9 per cent of GDP are required.”

If there’s one good thing about Flaherty’s 2009 budget (tabled January 27, 2009) it’s that it contains a table showing just how deeply the Conservatives have cut taxes since forming government in 2006.

By 2013, the Conservatives’ tax cuts will result in a loss in federal revenue of $220 billion by 2014. This includes $76.8 billion in GST, $83.1 billion in personal income tax, and a whopping $60.2 billion in corporate tax.

This is money that won’t be available for things like provincial and territorial health care, post-secondary education, child care, social programs, green energy policies, affordable housing, transit or improving employment insurance.

Block’s most recent partisan flyer, delivered to riding residents the week of February 22, 2010, touts the Conservative government’s economic action plan as “Lower Taxes. Good for you. Good for Canada.”

Block is careful to focus only on “personal tax relief” and avoids altogether the financial nightmare caused by cuts to the GST and corporate taxes. Not once is the word deficit mentioned.

Unfortunately, with all power concentrated in the prime minister’s office it has reduced cabinet ministers and lowly backbenchers like Block to mere ciphers whose only purpose seems to be to attend tightly scripted photo ops and churn out party propaganda no matter how damaging the message might be.